Golden Globes Best Picture Nominee – The Social Network

by Nicholas Robinson

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. – IMDB.com

I am once again, FINALLY writing a review for one of the best movies of the year. For a movie that made number 7 on my Top Ten of 2010 list, all of you know that this is not just a good movie, but a great movie. This movie showed me once again (before The Fighter) that biopics or movies about true events can not only be informative but fun. The story in the movie was great, the acting was superb, the score was amazing and the cinematography was wonderful.

The story in this movie was great. Aaron Sorkin wrote a script that detailed the accounts of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook using a technique that has been overused in the film industry, but unlike most of the time when it is used, he does it wonderfully. Instead of just telling the events chronologically like a regular biopic, it uses the lawsuits that were taken against Zuckerberg as the storytellers. Even though when watching the movie you see the events happen, it is actually people testifying what happened as part of the lawsuit which was wonderfully done.

The acting in this movie was superb. Jesse Eisenberg was brilliant as Mark Zuckerberg, the geek who turns an idea into a multi-billion dollar corporation, all while wearing his hoody and “fuck-you” flip-flops. Just the way he speaks in this movie is amazing. Andrew Garfield was also amazing as Eduardo Saverin, the best friend who is gradually pushed away from the company and then eventually gets fucked over by his best friend. Surprisingly, Justin Timberlake was really good as Sean Parker, the cool dude who knows his way around a business. Overall the acting was good, but Rooney Mara to me in the movie was just average. On the other hand, Brenda Song was hilarious as Eduardo’s crazy girlfriend. For almost all her time on-screen I was laughing a lot. She was good.

Trent Reznor did a wonderful job scoring this movie. Every track fit the scene it was used in perfectly. Also, I’m not sure if this is under score, but when Mark and Sean were in the club and the music level wasn’t turned down like in most movies, they kept it loud like in a real club and I found that very cool. As I said, the cinematography was wonderful. There were shots that I wouldn’t have even thought of using for the movie, like the scene with the race in the Olympics where the Winkklevoss’ (Armie Hammer) lost I would never have thought of using constant switching in slow motion between them and the Dutch, but it worked and brilliantly.

Overall this is a wonderful movie which deserves to be seen the world over (and should have been marketed on Facebook)

One Response to “Golden Globes Best Picture Nominee – The Social Network”

To me, the real star of The Social Network is Andrew Garfield who played Eduardo. I only recently saw this film. He was easily the only sympathetic character in the movie. He was destroyed by what his friend did to him, hence the lawsuit, but you could see that he felt bad, because deep down in Zuckerberg, his friend was still there. He gave a brilliant performance and deserves the most recognition.